Nader Denounces Big Oil and Corporate Greed

As part of his ongoing "whistle stop tour" for the 2008 presidential campaign, Ralph Nader stopped in Glens Falls, New York at a local cafe to speak with supporters and host a fundraiser. Despite a recent Zogby poll which left Nader with 1% of the vote should Obama be the nominee and 3% if Clinton wins the nomination, over 200 enthusiastic supporters greeted the former consumer advocate with a standing ovation. During the fundraiser, Nader took serious issue with gas prices, protesting the government's refusal to regulate the industry or investigate major oil corporations. He denounced the current system, claiming that "the price is made by the New York Mercantile Exchange which is a bunch of speculators and if they hear a rumor about Nigeria, they'll drive it up again and you pay through the nose at the gas pump." Nader further denounced "corporate greed," chastising the Republican and Democratic candidates silence on the issue and citing it as the cause of the nation's current economic woes. Nader hopes to "rouse the people" in his race for the president, and upstate New York seemed to welcome his message.

The Democratic Divide and Hungry Hippo Nader

In a recent Time magazine article highlighting Hillary's 52% lead over Barack's 42% in the most recent poll in the Pennsylvania primary, Time magazine alluded to a potential gain by Nader. According to Time, "Four percent of Democratic voters were undecided, and 2% refused a response. However, 20% of these likely Democratic voters said they would vote for John McCain in November if their Democratic choice does not win their party's nomination." The article later claimed that due to the divide and indecision amongst Democratic voters, Ralph Nader could look forward to a 5% gain in Pennsylvania. Then Time made another astonishing claim:"Nader's 4% could potentially quadruple, as 17% of Democratic respondents said that if their first choice does not get the Democratic nomination, they may vote for Nader." Democratic contention is proving to have wonderful effects on the Nader Campaign. In a recent Michigan poll "with an error margin of plus or minus 4 percent, apparently concluded that if Sen. Hillary Clinton got the Democratic nomination, Sen. John McCain would earn 46 percent of the state's vote and she would get 37 percent, with Nader earning 10 percent". Nader's campaign has been looking pretty glum but with such statements being made due to the continual Democratic rift, Nader might be looking at a general election voter output much higher than in the 2000 election. Although such a gain is unlikely, especially due to the few green votes in 2004, it does shed greater light on the claims made in 2000 that Nader stole votes from the Democrats. The Democratic divide might be too great for the party to repair in time for the General Election the floating, rolling votes will probably be gobbled up by Nader meaning that Hungry Hippo McCain will have a greater chance of winning the campaign. Its just a matter of how the Democratic primary nomination plays out into the General Election.

http://blogs.courant.com/on_background/2008/04/nader-thrilled-with-10-show-of.html
http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1732550,00.html

Criticism of Corporations Dominates Campaign

Ralph Nader spent most of his career as a consumer advocate, a role which has translated into a presidential platform. Despite heavy criticism from many media reporters, journalists, and Democrats who still blame him for the outcome of the 2000 election, Nader hopes to shift the balance of power between corporations and consumers towards the latter. Nader spent much of the past week in New England and Pennsylvannia where he spoke out against powerful corporations. At Princeton, Nader's alma-mater, he argued that "this country is not designed for corporate supremacy" and noted that "[a corporation] doesn't vote"..."doesn't die in Iraq," and "doesn't raise children." In Pennsylvania, Nader visted West Chester, a small town of quaker heritage, where he denounced big businesses as "corporate crooks" and even demanded corporate tax increases and protection again "corporate crime." Nader's message however, has fallen on deaf ears over the past several weeks, as his candidacy announcement was overshadowed by the race for the Democratic nomination.

Gonzalez Will Run With Nader

Last week, Ralph Nader announced his candidacy for president. Not long after, Matt Gonzalez joined Nader's campaign as his running-mate for the vice presidency. Both Nader and Gonzalez spoke in Washington D.C. this week, denouncing large corporations and urging "the people" to reclaim power. Nader and Gonzalez outlined their three major goals for their 2008 campaign: first, they aim for election reform, advocating a candidate ranking system like those in Ireland and Australia. Second, they both addressed the widening gap between rich and poor, calling for minimum wage increases. Third, Nader and Gonzalez spoke out against the Iraq War, demanding troop withdrawls from both Afghanistan and Iraq. Finally, Nader spoke of the importance of third party candidates in offering a choice and bringing options to voters.

He Will Run!!!!!!

He’s running! This past Sunday, on "Meet the Press" with Tim Russel, Nader announced that he would enter the race for president, the third time in eight years. Now there is much debate over whether or not Nader will make a big splash in the general election coming up in November in comparison to the 2000 election. Nader is unoubtedly the best candidate for the green party. The reason he’s runnign is, therefore, not to win but to push through green consumerist issues. For the past few weeks, votenader.org has posted a ‘contribute to the Nader campaign’ on one side of the webpage and the slogan fight “corporate greed, corporate power, corporate control.” Whether or not he expects to win is as arbitrary and it would be illinformed to assume that Nader will make little or no impact on the election. Quite the contrary; Nader meanwhile announcing his candidacy, criticized both the Democrats and Republicans for not addressing consumerist issues, labor rights, and corporate greed. Now it’s just a matter of how the votes will play out and if Nader once again is criticized as the ‘spoiler’.

Drafting the 'Spoiler'?

Poor Nadar, so close to his potential announcement, has been consistently criticized for spoiling the election for Gore in 2000. The critics of Salon.com claim that Nadar won 97421 votes and if one considered the Gore voting range, then Nader's votes came from what otherwise would have been Gore's (new voter candidate program that tracks the Voting pool of candidates). Nader, the spoiler, is currently announcing the new Coal Mine Safety report, all the while a new online website for Green Party voters is attempting to attract voters to endorse Nader for Presidency. The 'Draft Nader' website posts all upcoming Nader speaking engagements, quips and consumerist essays, and actively pushes reasons for why Nader is the 'green' man. (www.draftnader.org).

Watch out for Nader; if he gets pushed far enough by green party support he'll announce and if he does he might still be called the spoiler come next year. (Oh and statistically speaking, its doubtful that Nader ever lived up to the name 'spoiler' back in the 2000 election.)

A Talk to Carytown

On Saturday, Feb 9 Nader visited the community of Carytown to discuss his political ideology at the first Environmental Film Festival. Nader also addressed his campaign intentions, "We have an exploratory committee. Within a month, we'll decide one way or another." Nader has launched an Exploratory Committee to know what his chances of winning are. Along with the Exploratory Committee Nader launched to have an idea if he will have "Enough volunteers, enough funds and enough staff," he also launched NaderExplore08.org. Nader spoke for seventy minutes in which he discussed hot topics such as outsourcing and corporations. Nader was able to fire up the audience by stating rather controversial statements such as "There are 1,500 corporations in this country who get their way from Congress." Nader also touched on the issue of health care and was able to connect with the audience by dramatizing the deaths of people due to lack of health care and saying "That's six 9/11s each year!" Overall audience members thought that his lecture was enticing. We will now anxiously wait and see if he does decide to run for president.



He Most Likely Will

Nader Opens Exploratory Committee

Consumer activist Ralph Nader opened an exploratory committee last week, a strong indication that he is considering a run for president. Nader as also launched a website, naderexplore08.org, which he is using to "test the waters" to see if he has adequate support. Nader's decision came immediately following John Edward's decision to drop out of the race, and although Nader stated that Edwards had the "most progressive platform," Nader claims that his decision is not connected with Edward's withdrawl. Nader's priorites in a campaign would be "civil liberties" and the "inability of many parties to get on the ballot." Nader has officially decided that he will run for president, but with more and more American's becoming disenchanted with the two major parties, an independent Nader bid could seriously affect the election.

Nader and One Month

"I'll decide in about a month," announced Ralph Nader on CBC Radio last Monday. As stated, he apparently is just working out the financial logistics and attempting to unite his party in order to pull of another successful campaign, which he hopes will be even stronger than his successes in the 2000 election. Although as the blogs keep streaming it seems that the country it seems that efforts are being made in vain. Does America really want Nader to enter in the next election? We don’t know but I’m sure that he’s asking himself the same question and for that reason it may explain all of the Nader delay. And in about a month Nader is expected to give a speech at Emory University on going green against pollution. By then the nation should know whether or not Nader is really going to be seen on the 2008 presidential election ballot.

Ralph Nader Visits Canada

Former Green Party candidate Ralph Nader spent the last week in Canada, where he spoke to nearly 700 young engineers at the seventh annual national conference of Engineers Without Borders Canada in Montreal. The former consumer advocate warned the attendees to be weary of "bureaucratic language" and discouraged them from becoming "servants" to corporate welfare. Nader went on to attack large corporations, claiming that "when big businesses are in trouble, they don't go bankrupt, they go to Ottawa or Washington." However, Nader encouraged the group of engineers, mostly in their twenties, to take advantage of their curiosity and try to bring about change. While in Montreal, Nader also spoke on a CBC radio show and announced that he will decide "in about a month" whether or not to run for president. Nader said that his primary consideration would be whether or not he could arouse enough money and support to get on the ballot - a feature of the U.S. election process which he criticized.

Nader still undecided.

Moments ago nearly 800 people paid to view the five Green Part Presidential candidates "debate." It is an overstatement to say that they were debating for they agreed with each other on nearly every topic, from the war in Iraq to the legalization of marijuana. The five candidates were Jared Ball, Jesse Johnson, Cynthia McKinney, Kent Mesplay, and Cat Swift. Ralph Nader is yet to announce that he will be running for the candidacy but he did speak briefly after the debate. He spoke for ten minutes after the debate even though he was scheduled to participate in the debate. In fact Nader arrived late at the debate and left briefly after. This is odd because he was the candidate for the Green Party in both the 2000 and the 2004 election. Furthermore, Nader has not made any sign that he will be the candidate and recently asked his office to declare that he is not a candidate.

Nader endorses Edwards

It’s been a big week for all of the candidates, especially Barack Obama after having won the democratic nomination in the late Iowa caucus. But now all eyes are on New Hampshire. With his recent endorsement of John Edwards on Hardball, Ralph Nader continues to play an indirect role in the upcoming elections. Nader said this of Edwards, the ‘third contending’ runner; “now has the most progressive message across a broad spectrum of corporate power damaging the interests of workers, consumers, taxpayers, of any candidate I have--leading candidate I have seen in years." What does this mean for Edward’s campaign? Well— considering more urgent news developments, Nader’s endorsement is probably in the back of voter’s minds, even fellow consumerists. Nader still maintains a strong influence on a minority of Americans and therefore the endorsement may in fact be a huge asset for Edwards as he heads out in the NH primary. Once again, Nader is exercising some of his political influence in hopes of furthering his political views. We may just have to wait and wonder just how far his ambitions take him in the next election.